Teen and St. John’s grad shot dead as violence breaks out at J’Ouvert parade in Brooklyn

She had warned her 17-year-old son not go to J'Ouvert, fearing for his safety.

Those worst fears were realized Monday when he became one of two people, along with a 22-year-old St. John's University grad student, killed during a bloody night, police said.

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Tyreke Borel, the slain teen originally from Trinidad and Tobago studying to be a car mechanic, was shot in the chest at 3:45 a.m. at Empire Blvd. and Flatbush Ave. during the predawn celebration.

Detectives comb the site of a shooting along the J'Ouvert parade route at Washington Ave. and Empire Blvd. early Monday. (Danny Iudici)

"He was just a lovely child who wanted to enjoy the Labor Day. I told him to be safe, but he's 17. He didn't want to stay home," Alima St. Clair, Tyreke's devastated mother, said at her Flatbush apartment.

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"I asked him not to go. I was worried about him getting hurt. I said not to go but he wanted to go."

Some 30 minutes later, Tiarah Poyau, who dreamed of becoming an accountant, was shot above her right eye at close range and killed.

The two young Brooklynites became the latest victims killed in the annual overnight revelry that spans Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Flatbush.

Tyreke died sitting on a bench, alone, taking a break from the revelry, police sources said.

The brazen gunman — who opened fire among a large crowd despite being illuminated by six floodlights and surrounded by 48 police officers — had not been aiming for Tyreke, police said.

The shooter, who also wounded 72-year-old Margaret Peters, was able to escape amid the chaos and was still at large, police said.

"I'm very happy to be alive. I thought this year it would be much safer with the lights on every block and all the police," Peters said. "But you can't stop bad from coming out even with lights on," she added.

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Police said Poyau was shot at Empire Blvd. and Franklin Ave., a block from the first shooting. She was also not the gunman's intended target.

The shooter in that incident is also at large, police said.

"She was just trying to have fun like everybody else," a friend of Poyau's family in East New York said.

At 6:45 a.m., a 20-year-old man was shot in the leg at Rogers and Clarkson Aves. during a fight between two groups of people, NYPD Chief Patrick Conry said.

Last year, two men — including Carey Gabay, an aide to Gov. Cuomo — were killed at the celebration, prompting what Police Commissioner Bill Bratton called an "unprecedented" show of force to prevent it from happening again.

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But that effort was to no avail.

John Miller, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, and his successor Chief of Department James O'Neill observe the J'Ouvert celebration in Brooklyn. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)

This year's victims were likely caught in a gang beef, officials said — an eerie reminder of Gabay, who was shot in the head trying to take cover during a wild gang shootout.

"We'd seen people running toward us and we just ran. We weren't trying to stay there. It was a lot (of gunshots)," said Justina England, 20, of Crown Heights, who heard the first shooting Monday. "It was real scary. Seriously."

Poyau, a St. John’s University student, described herself as an aspiring CPA. (Facebook)

The bloody night also saw a 66-year-old woman injured fleeing the chaos caused by the first volley of bullets, police sources said.

About seven blocks away, at Eastern Parkway and Classon Ave. at 5:30 a.m., a man was stabbed and taken to New York Methodist Hospital with non-life-threatening wounds, police sources said.

The incident occurred off the official J'Ouvert route, an area secured by a permit this year.

Mayor de Blasio emphasized that the actions of the gunmen did not represent Brooklyn's Caribbean community. J'Ouvert, which means "daybreak," precedes the New York Caribbean Carnival Parade, but is not affiliated with it.

"We will not let a few define the many," de Blasio said.

Tyreke's uncle, David Brathwaite, 56, had to break the news to the teen's dad, a police officer in Trinidad.

"I wanted to be a father figure to him, show him the good side of life," said Brathwaite, who had begun teaching the teen about cars at Paint Masters Auto Body and Fender Repair in Brownsville.

NYPD doubled its parade patrol to squash stop gun violence at the J'Ouvert celebration. But it wasn't enough. (NYPD)

Tyreke, the oldest of three children, had lived in New York for four years. He will be buried in his native Trinidad, St. Clair said.

"I just want my Tyreke," St. Clair said, leaning her head against a wall and crying.